Liver cancer is the most common cancer in Vietnam

Updated at Wednesday, 12 Dec 2018, 16:51

The Hanoitimes - Liver cancer in Vietnam is increasing rapidly and mortality is high due to shortage of hepatitis B vaccination.

In 2018, more than 25,000 Vietnamese people were diagnosed with liver cancer, which becomes the most common cancer in Vietnam and relegates lung cancer to the second place with 23,667 new cases, VnExpress reported.

Vietnam is among the countries with the highest incidence of liver cancer, indicated by dark blue on the map of liver cancer in the world. Photo: GLOBOCAN

Dr. Pham Xuan Dung, director of the HCMC Hospital of Oncology, said that liver cancer overtakes lung cancer for the first time in history as the most common type of cancer in Vietnam.

Dung cited a 2018 report by international cancer surveillance database GLOBOCAN saying that 25,335 people in Vietnam contracted liver cancer this year, and 25,404 died of it. Lung cancer ranked second with 23,667 people diagnosed in the year which killed 20,701 people.

Vietnam is also ranked among the countries with the highest rates of liver cancer in the world. For every 100,000 people, 23.2 have liver cancer, in both sexes.

Professor Nguyen Chan Hung, head of the Vietnam Cancer Association, said in Vietnam, liver cancer is seen in men and women and the cancer risk of men is three times higher than that of women. It is difficult to detect early, so the successful cure rate is low, Hung added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that without rapid action, the number of people carrying hepatitis virus will increase in the coming years.

Liver cancer in Vietnam is increasing rapidly and mortality is high due to shortage of hepatitis B vaccination. People have no sense of screening for liver cancer periodically, especially those with high risk factors such as hepatitis B, C, alcoholism, among others.